Is NASCAR Really a Sport?

Anyone watching the ESPY's would have seen that NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson was a nominee for Best Male Athlete. Well, Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate wasn't really a big fan of that.

After he found out about the nomination, he said this on his Twitter account, "Jimmy johnson up for best athlete???? Um nooo..Driving a car does not show athleticism." 

He then went on to say how he could drive in NASCAR after a bit of practice, and it eventually ended up with Jimmie Johnson inviting him down to the track and Golden Tate apologizing, but for all intensive purposes, Golden Tate brings up a great question. Is NASCAR really a sport?

The guys drive around and stuff, but would you say they are athletes or are they just letting the car do the work for them? The car is the engineering marvel after all. 

Then we have to take into account all the work the crew does when taking the wheels off and putting them back on during pit stops and all the other mechanical work. 

They do drive at extremely fast speeds that are obviously not suitable on the road, but are they really ATHLETES???

I still have to say I believe they are athletes because driving in NASCAR is a skill. They take a lot of heat for being labeled as athletes, but I believe it's well deserved. They do put in the hard time and it's really not that easy to drive that kind of car. Any average Joe would need a tremendous amount of practice before he or she could even think of going on the track. 

Everyone just has to stop bashing the NASCAR guys. They have a tough job just like all other athletes do. Just because their bodies aren't taking the same type of physical pounding that a football player's body does, doesn't mean there isn't an art to it. That's where the driving comes into play.

Jim Tressel Had Issues With Compliance In the Past

So maybe after all, Ohio State should have seen this coming. According to reports, departments in Ohio State did performance evaluations on then current coach Jim Tressel.

Let's just say...his performance did not come out flawless. The report said he did an "unacceptable" job reporting school violations. I guess that's exactly what transpired in the football program's memorabilia scandal.

It's hard to understand why an athletic department wouldn't take action when their famed football program has a coach that could potentially tarnish their reputation in front of the NCAA. Quite odd...

Then again, Ohio State president Gordon Gee has made himself look questionable in the past, calling Boise State "Little Sisters of the Poor." Oww!

Other programs in the future should see these reports as warning signs. Don't just blow these things off as irrelevant. Talk to the coaching staff about what's is going wrong and work to fix it.

I mean let's face it, the coach can do more damage to the school than the school can do to the coach. His actions directly represent the school. When Jim Tressel lied, he lied for Ohio State. In the eye of the public, he didn't lie just for himself, but he lied for Ohio State.

Curtis Granderson Not Receiving Enough Attention This Year

I don't know why, but Yankees outfielder Curtis Granderson has received almost no media attention this year. He's been on a power tear and has really helped carry the Yankees.

Although he's only hitting .268 this season, he has 25 home runs and 66 RBI's this year. He's tied with Mark Teixeira for the team lead in home runs. He's also been able to steal 15 bases on top of that. 

The reason Granderson has been such a surprise this year is because of how terribly he played last season. The Yankees were expecting him to come in a give them a big boost, but he just didn't do it. 

This year, he's 1st in the AL in runs scored, tied for 2nd in the AL in home runs, and is 3rd in slugging percentage with a .569 slugging percentage. 

He's had a tremendous season and hopefully he gets some more respect this year.

Deron Williams Will Officially Play in Turkey If There Is a Lockout

Today, Deron Williams put pen to paper and made it official. If there's an NBA lockout, he will be playing for Turkish club Besiktas on a 1-year contract.

ESPN's Chris Broussard says the 1-year contract is reportedly around $5 million. That's a pretty hefty pay cut for a guy making three times the amount in the NBA.

He will have to get a great and likely expensive insurance policy because if he get's injured and he doesn't have an insurance policy, his contract with the New Jersey Nets could be voided.

Whatever, he's got a lot of money and he'll be in total control next year if he chooses to become a free agent.

If there's no NBA season next year, have fun in Turkey, Deron.

Uhh... Former Georgia Football Coach Involved in a PONZI SCHEME???

Former Georgia football coach Jim Donnan has been accused of operating a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme through a fraudulent business he created.

Reportedly, a company known as GLC Enterprises was launched as a start-up in 2004. The company thrived off of investments made by prominent sports figures that included former Oklahoma and Cowboys coach Barry Switzer, Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, and Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville.

The court documents said that Donnan and his wife were able to secure investments from around 50 different parties. Between these 50 parties there reportedly around $82 million invested in GLC Enterprises and get this...$13 million of the money has not been found.

Talk about a SPORTS BERNIE MADOFF SCHEME going on here.

Joe Girardi Think Blue Jays Were Stealing Signs

Yankees manager Joe Girardi believes the Toronto Blue Jays were stealing signs from his ball club. He believes someone near second base was using illegal means to obtain signs and relay it back to the hitters.

It also happened to be the inning where Bartolo Colon was hammered and taken out of the game.

Anytime a team says a another club is taking signs those can be some damaging allegations. This may lead to an MLB investigation and possibly some bad blood between these two teams.

Hopefully, we don't see another Red Sox-Orioles brawl break out. Although, lets fan it....the fans LOVE brawls.

France vs. Sweden to Play in Third Place Match At World Cup

After disappointing losses, France and Sweden will play each other for the third place crown at the World Cup. France was defeated by the United States and Sweden lost to Japan.

Probably a tough match to play considering it's only for third place at this point, but they both had good runs. France looks like a stronger team. They played well up until the last 10 minutes against the United States when they let in 2 goals in a span of 4 minutes.

Kudos to both these teams. Whatever happens in their match they both had good tournaments and they look to be international powers in the future at the World Cup stage.

Woman Files Lawsuit Against Sister Over Duke Basketball Tickets

A woman named Katina Dorton filed a lawsuit against her sister today over tickets that she says are hers. Her attorney says that she's a graduate of Duke University.

Her attorney is saying that Dorton's sister had no right to transfer the tickets and use them because she never consented to it.

Family feuds over basketball tickets. Makes for some pretty entertaining stories.

Will Shaq Be a Good TV Analyst

Today, Shaquille O'Neal signed a deal with Turner Sports to come on as an analyst for the network. Many already view the Big Diesel as an entertaining character and some see him becoming an analyst very similar to Charles Barkley.

Shaq has always been entertaining throughout his career. Whether it's the victory parade after his Lakers won the championship or his stint as a police officer in Miami, we'll always be sure to expect the unexpected from Shaq.

My favorite TV memory of Shaq was when he did an interview with Stephen A. Smith. Smith asked him a question about Eric Dampier and Shaq proceeded to say, "I didn't know we were talking about the WNBA."

He should spice up the usual boring commentary from NBA analysts.

James Harrison Finally Apologizes for Comments

James Harrison finally had the guts today to say he was sorry about the comments he made to the Men's Journal magazine.

It's a little too late, but he says he was feeling a little emotional after thinking and expressing his thoughts about the Super Bowl loss. He then went on to directly apologize to Ben Roethlisberger and Rashard Mendenhall for calling them out.

James Harrison didn't really do the Steelers a favor here and he's got to understand that. You can't talk trash about your own team only to attempt to recant your statements a day later.

He's probably lost a little bit of trust in that locker room and his teammates have got to wondering about him right now. They've got to resolve their trust issues before the season begin.

Georgia Tech Loses 2009 ACC Title

NCAA Investigators came down hard on the Yellow Jackets. Both the men's football and basketball programs were found to be at fault.

The NCAA also fined Georgia Tech $100,000 for failing to cooperate with their investigation. Most importantly though they were put on 4 years probation and stripped of their 2009 ACC Title.

The violations were found to be major violations and put a big hit to the program. Former receiver and current Broncos receiver Demaryius Thomas reportedly received close to $312 in value of clothing from former Georgia Tech quarterback Calvin Booker.

These should prove to be very bad for the Georgia Tech athletic department. They were found to have broken major rules and could be severely restricted in the future.

Four years probation for a Division I program is pretty difficult to swallow considering Georgia Tech plays in the always tough ACC.

Hopefully they can figure things out despite the harsh punishments.

Marlins Fans Are Finding it Hard to Show Up to the Games

The Florida Marlins announced yesterday that they are shutting down the upper deck of the stadium for the rest of the season. If you haven't seen footage of their games, it seems they have barely a handful of fans in the upper deck. 

They have the worst home attendance of the 30 Major League Baseball teams, so this isn't surprising. The Sunshine state just doesn't seem to be a big fan of the MLB. Until a few years ago when the Tampa Bay Devil Rays actually became good, their bleachers were also close to empty. 

It's also important to understand that Florida has been one of the hardest hit states by the economic recession and has a high level of unemployment, especially in Miami.

Could we be looking at the Marlins relocating in a couple of years??

Why is it Impossible to Predict Golf Tournament Winners

Every since Tiger Woods has been out of the golf picture, it's been basically impossible to predict winners of golf tournaments, especially majors.

Analysts try to use stats and rankings, but really there's always a new guy coming on to the scene. First, it's Rory McIlroy winning the last major and now Luke Donald taking the #1 ranking in golf, but none of those guys consistently win tournaments. They are good, but not dominating good.

If you like being surprised and having parity in sports, you should watch golf now. Maybe if you go out and play with a few friends, you'll know who will win based on who's the best of the bunch, but it's different in professional golf.

Everyone knows the same tricks and analyzes the surroundings. If I were to guess, I'd say winning is based on mental toughness and a little bit of luck here and there.

The guys in Las Vegas have a tough time predicting the odds on these tournaments.

Roger Clemens Gets Off Without Any Jail or Guilty Plea After Mistrial Declared

After about a year of gathering evidence on Roger Clemens to charge him with perjury, the prosecution in without a doubt one of the most high profile trials apparently made a huge blunder.

The government prosecutors in the Clemens trial supposedly used evidence in court that the judge explicitly told them they could not use. The piece of evidence was reportedly a tape of a conversation between Andy Pettitte and the wife of Roger Clemens. After Roger Clemens' defense attorneys identified the blunder they quickly motioned for a mistrial, which the judge granted.

ESPN's legal analyst Lester Munson said the judge was "furious" at the prosecution. Wow! Imagine waiting a year to gather evidence on one of the most famous sports celebrities in the country only to make one mistake and have to whole trial go to waste. One of those prosecutors is probably running and taking an early vacation.

Most people following the case seem to agree that it will be difficult to try and prosecute Roger Clemens again because that would be considered "double jeopardy." This protects individuals accused of a crime from being prosecuted twice for the same time.

Whoops!! Roger Clemens is probably popping champagne right now.

Randy Moss is Back....According to His Agent

After a terrible season last year where Randy Moss bounced around to three teams, Randy Moss's agent says HAVE NO FEAR!!! The real Randy Moss is apparently back.

He says the "Old Randy Moss" is ready to return and says Moss is in "freakish shape." Well, if Randy really is back then I guess he will be like he was in this video below. One thing we know about Moss, "I PLAY WHEN I WANT TO PLAY!"